Bergen Group at Peace with Award

PARAMUS, N.J. – In 2009, Bergen Community College faculty, staff and students sought to begin a dialogue around global conflict and the path to forgiveness by establishing the Center for Peace, Justice and Reconciliation.

This work has now received recognition from one of the most prestigious community college honors in the country.

For its educational initiatives, exhibitions, performances and dialogues rooted in civic engagement and encouraging Bergen students to become more responsive local and global citizens, the Center earned the John and Suanne Roueche Excellence Award sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College. Members of the Center will attend the League’s “Innovation Conference” next month in San Francisco to accept the award.

“In just eight years, the Center for Peace, Justice and Reconciliation has become a nationally recognized resource for the study of conflict and resolution,” Bergen President B. Kaye Walter, Ph.D., said. “The group’s innovative approach to fostering dialogue has not only provided historical context, but created an environment where students and the community at large are challenged to develop an understanding regarding how to recognize and diagnose future conflicts.”

Under the co-direction of Associate Dean of College and High School Partnerships David Eichenholtz, Ph.D., and Professor Tom La Pointe, the Center has become a regional center for the study of problems related to political and ethnic violence and a leading voice on the causes and consequences of the Armenian genocide.

Past events have included discussions with Holocaust survivors, forums on the heroin epidemic and even a TEDx conference, which will return to the College’s main campus Tuesday, March 7 in the Anna Maria Ciccone Theatre. The group maintains a speakers’ bureau of faculty and local experts on topics such as genocide, bullying and history.

The Center also sponsors grants for faculty members conducting research and scholarships for students.

Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu<http://www.bergen.edu/>), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls 15,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.